The House By The Willow
by Marishaten
Summary: Inuyasha and Kagome wander about in an unknown forest one moonless night.


"Demon!" someone screamed.

The moonless night came alive with the feral rhythm of a drum; spears could be seen shimmering in the wagging tongues of glowing torches. Two figures were running, occasionally looking back. The taller was clad in what seemed like a priest's garb at first sight – a white kosode and a red hakama. The shorter was almost hunched over in a loose red haori. Nothing much could be discerned about it.

Following close at their heels were around fifty villagers – men filled with ennui in their everyday lives, suddenly come alive with the stimulant of a hunt. Enraged, maddened men who would listen to neither logic nor entreaty.

Finding a fortuitous bend in the path, the taller figure pulled the shorter into the forest, behind a tree. The men followed the bend and came to a sudden halt, looking around in confusion. In the next few moments not a leaf shook in the entire forest. The villagers decided to split up and search for the absconding pair.

"_That's_ why I told you not to wander away from the others tonight." Inuyasha hissed.

Kagome peered up at his face from under the haori.

"But the boy was lost. Someone had to bring him home," she whispered.

"And look where it landed you. They called you a demon and almost skinned you alive for abducting him," dark eyes glared at her in the darkness. "Would've succeeded too, if I hadn't been following you," he added with a shiver.

"B-but he said his village was near-by, and Miroku-sama was so injured and Sango-chan so exhausted…I didn't want to wake them up."

"Then you should've waited till _sunrise_. When I could've offered you some _protection_."

"I figured his parents would be worried~"

Inuyasha clamped his hand over her mouth. A second later the bush across them lit up. Kagome held her breath, trying her best to blend in with the forest, but she was afraid that the audible thumping of her heart would give away their position any minute.

Around five or six men surveyed the area for possible clues, but they couldn't discover much. In a while they dissipated in pairs into various parts of the forest. Inuyasha took Kagome's hand and started running – where he did not know. He zig-zagged his way into…or was it out of…the wilderness without any heed to route or destination.

After running for a vague amount of time he finally stopped and surveyed his surroundings. The bamboo grove was nowhere to be seen – he was in the midst of a pine forest. There was a deathly silence all around him. He strained his ears for any sound of pursuit but all he could hear were the hissing of his own breath and Kagome's loud gasps. At least he had lost his pursuers, he thought. The problem was, he was lost as well. The darkness around them was oppressive – almost a palpable entity. He looked up and tried to read the constellations, but he was never any good at it – having lived his life depending more on instincts than astral knowledge. Finally he sighed.

"Are we lost?" Kagome asked forlornly.

"Most likely."

He took a few paces ahead, ignoring the burrs that stabbed his sensitive soles. There was a clearing up ahead and what seemed like a ramshackle hut outlined against the ebon sky. Taking Kagome's hand once again, he broke into a quick pace. She panted to keep up with him. He pushed through a grove and finally stood in the opening – which was at the edge of a river.

The hut was low and almost falling apart. A weeping willow stood beside it, swaying somewhat mysteriously in a slow current of air.

_Willows whiten, aspens quiver, little breezes dusk and shiver_…

Kagome shook her head and forced herself to think of pleasanter things. Like Inuyasha… human, defenceless, vulnerable –

_Oh no!_

She jumped as the hanging mat on the doorway lifted on its own. Beside her, Inuyasha's sharp intake of breath belied his calm façade. Both were relieved to discover a rat disappearing into a bush. Motioning Kagome to be quiet, Inuyasha entered the hut.

His eyes took longer than usual to adjust to the darkness but gradually he took in a water pitcher, an extinguished lantern and a pile of blanket in the middle of a threadbare tatami. The blanket shifted.

"Is it you, Tarou?"

The voice was that of a woman, but it was old and frail, slightly laboured. Inuyasha grunted in response. He couldn't risk divulging his identity without further introduction. What if she raised an alarm and alerted the villagers?

"What took you so long, child? Did you get good money in the market?"

Inuyasha slipped out of the hut. Immediately Kagome was upon him.

"What did you see?"

"It smelled kinda funny but I guess it's safe enough. There's an old hag, probably waiting for her grandson or something. You go inside and wait for me while I take a quick scan of the landscape and chalk out an escape route."

"Alright, but put on your haori first," Kagome suited the action to the words.

"Thanks. Oh, she thinks her grandson has returned, so don't utter a word in there."

Kagome nodded: "You be safe, Inuyasha."

"Obviously."

Inuyasha ran off into the forest as Kagome entered the hut. She blinked in the pitch darkness.

"Did you go out of the hut, Tarou?" a broken voice came from the middle of the room. "Why don't you be a dear and light the lamp?"

Kagome hesitated. Lighting the lamp meant giving herself away as surely as breaking into a song. On the other hand, obaasan might become suspicious if she didn't.

"You're thinking what will obaasan do with the lamp when she's blind as a bat? At least you can see your way around."

Emboldened, Kagome looked around for the lamp. She found it in a corner beside a water pitcher. Taking her lighter out of her pocket, she lit it – lacking the time or the inclination to screw around with the wretched flint and stone. Warm light flooded the hut, pushing out the ghosts of darkness. Kagome made a survey of the landscape.

The abode was dilapidated, sorely in need of repair. The roof was torn in several places and the tatami mat looked like a hundred years old. Obaasan was lying curled up on the mat, covered from head to toe in a stinky blanket. She clearly lived in a state of abject poverty.

"Can't poke my head out of the blanket, dear. The wind is rather frightful isn't it?" obaasan wheezed, and then started shaking in a fit of cough: "The fever hasn't gone down at all. Did you get my medicine, Tarou?"

Kagome was filled with pity of the poor lady. She berated herself for being spooked out by the hut a while earlier. She wondered if she ought to do something to help out the supine lady.

"Why aren't you talking to me child?" obaasan asked piteously, "Is it because I didn't cook for you? There's nothing in the hut, I haven't eaten since yesterday morning."

Kagome looked around and saw there was really nothing, not even a single grain of rice anywhere in the hut. She hoped that Tarou, whoever he was, would return soon. Obaasan shivered again.

"Tarou, can you heat a bit of oil and put on my forehead, dear? I'm having a splitting headache."

Kagome was more than ready to help. Since obaasan was blind she couldn't see Kagome anyway, and if she massaged a little roughly she might easily pull off the Tarou act. She looked around till she found an old box with some stale-smelling oil in it. Taking a handy crucible she heated a medium quantity of oil and proceeded to lift obaasan's blanket.

The side she lifted revealed a pair of bony, shrivelled feet, discoloured with age, the toenails almost blackened. Obaasan chuckled.

"Not on my feet, you silly boy. On my head. This side."

Kagome walked over to the other side of the blanket and lifted it up.

_It revealed a pair of bony, shrivelled feet, discoloured with age, the toenails almost blackened._

Kagome dropped her crucible in shock and screamed for Inuyasha. Obaasan's chuckles increased.

"My head, my head, find my head!" she wheezed in a sing-song voice.

A gust of wind blew out the lantern. Obaasan's chuckles filled the room.

"My head, miko, my head!"

Kagome screamed again and tried to run out of the hut. But the hanging mat kept getting entangled around her.

"Won't you look under the blanket? Come, lift it up!"

Kagome was getting desperate. Her family was ages away in the modern era, her friends were probably miles away, even Inuyasha was gone. She was all alone and totally defenceless.

The more she tried to push through the mat the more it kept getting entangled around her, suffocating her. On the floor the blanket was shifting, inching towards her. In that fateful moment Kagome suddenly recognized the scent that was coming from obaasan's blanket – the scent that Inuyasha had described as "kinda funny". _It was the smell of a corpse._ Tears of despair welled up in her eyes. The blanket was almost within reach now, slowly rising up; the mat won't let her budge from her position. A pair of icy hands wrapped around her shoulders and –

– pulled her out of the hut.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome gasped.

"What's the matter wench? Why are you all white and shaking?"

"Run!" she gasped, practically pulling at his sleeve.

"Yeah that's what I'm saying, I chalked out the way back."

"Hurry!" she tugged his sleeve again.

His is not to question why. Holding Kagome's hand tightly in his, he ran.


End file.
